'Turning point': Ukrainian government forces retake key city

David Herszenhorn

Kiev: With an onslaught of gunfire and mortar shelling, Ukrainian government forces expelled pro-Russian insurgents from Slaviansk, a long-blockaded rebel stronghold, and raised the blue and yellow Ukrainian flag over the City Council building.

In retaking Slaviansk, the site of some of the fiercest battles throughout the insurrection, Ukrainian forces did not necessarily deal a decisive blow to the rebels but were finally gaining traction and reasserting state authority in eastern Ukraine, three months after separatists seized cities and towns throughout the region.

"The state flag of Ukraine is proudly waving over the city, which militants thought was their impregnable fortress," President Petro Poroshenko said. "It's not a complete victory and it's not a time for fireworks but clearing Slaviansk of extremely well-armed bandits has a very symbolic meaning. This is a turning point in fighting militants for the territorial integrity of Ukraine."

By Saturday evening, Ukrainian troops had also raised the national flag over City Hall in nearby Kramatorsk,where the insurgents were believed to be regrouping and seeking medical help.

An Ukrainian soldier outside a government building with a Ukrainian flag on the roof in Slaviansk. Photo: AP

The Ukrainian advances came four days after Mr Poroshenko ended a ceasefire and ordered the military to resume efforts to crush the rebellion by force.

With the separatists losing ground, there were signs of growing frustration in the east with Russian President Vladimir Putin for not making good on his promises to defend Russian people in Ukraine.

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"What to say," a rebel leader, Denis Pushilin, wrote on Twitter. "We were given hope. Given hope and abandoned. Nice were words of Putin about protecting the Russian, protecting New Russia. But only words."

The government advance moved quickly on Saturday. By midday, troops were sweeping neighbourhoods of Slaviansk in search of any remaining fighters, officials said.

Fighting raged through the night, and by Sunday morning most of the rebels had fled south, abandoning a city that had been strangled for weeks without basic services, including water, power, communications, food and medicine. Mr Poroshenko quickly promised deliveries of bread, water, sugar and cans of stewed meat.

There were no firm tallies of casualties, although officials said one government soldier had been killed and three wounded in fighting outside the city, and one separatist leader reported that about 150 rebels had sought medical help in Donetsk.

A Ukrainian flag flies atop a government building in Slaviansk. Photo: AP

Defiant rebel leaders confirmed that their fighters had fled under heavy attack by the Ukrainian military but insisted that the flight was only a temporary setback. "You think you won?" Mr Pushilin, the parliament speaker of the self-declared Donetsk People's Republic, wrote on Twitter. "This was a tactical move."

Andrei Purgin, an insurgent leader, said rebels abandoned the city because they were overwhelmed. "What would you do if you were shelled with mortars and artillery guns and pounded from the air, and you had only three tanks and assault rifles?" he told Interfax news service. "The Ukrainian security forces in fact tried to raze Slaviansk to the ground."

Government officials were jubilant. "Run!" the Ukrainian Interior Minister, Arsen Avakov, wrote in a Facebook post on the retaking of Slaviansk. "The terrorists are bearing losses, surrendering."

Ukrainian officials said that those fleeing included the well-known commander Igor Girkin who, the authorities here say, worked for the Russian military's foreign intelligence directorate. In east Ukraine, he had identified himself as Colonel Igor Strelkov, which means shooter or gunman. He had posted a video on YouTube on Friday, pleading with Mr Putin for broad-scale military support and predicting that Slaviansk would fall if help did not arrive soon.

As the government reported its success in Slaviansk, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church on Saturday announced the death of Metropolitan Volodymyr, 78, the leader of the church's Moscow patriarchate who had struggled, through illness, to be a voice of conciliation in the political turmoil.

His death could have broad political implications, setting the stage for a battle between clerics seeking closer ties with the Russian Orthodox Church, headquartered in Moscow, and those who want a more independent, distinctly Ukrainian church.